Morales Dominates Both Indoor and Outdoor Volleyball

Erin Campbell
Intern, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6864
E-Mail: erin.campbell@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 23, 2010) – Tiffany Morales’ (Redondo Beach, Calif.) indoor and outdoor prowess on the court has assisted her in being selected as one of the 12-players traveling to Singapore for the first annual Youth Olympic Games, Aug.16-21.

Tiffany Morales, the youngest of the 12, is the libero for Mizuno Long Beach 16-1 and Redondo Beach Union High School. She’s earned many awards including All-Area First Team, the Bay League’s Libero of the Year and the Coaches Award. Not only has she been a force to reckon with in the back row, she’s also made a name for herself on the beach courts.

In 2010, she won her fourth-straight AAU Beach Volleyball National Champion. Along with her titles, she’s earned her AA Women’s Beach Volleyball Rating and was voted as the AAU Beach Player of the year in 2009.

“I started [playing beach] because I played for Seal Beach when I was about nine and the coach would always have us practice once a week on the beach,” Morales said. “I liked it. I wanted to get a partner and go out and play all the time.”

She started playing beach one year after she began playing indoor. Over the course of her time switching back and forth between the two games, she has developed a sense of really why the two games are so different. Along with the external factors of the sun, wind and “playing field,” there is a difference in equipment as well.

“The hardest thing to transition from one to the other is the weight of the ball,” Morales said. “It’s more difficult to pass [the indoor ball] because the beach ball is a little lighter so the ball travels further back from the net. In the indoor game, the ball drops faster.”

The five-foot-five libero enjoys the game because she’s not restricted to just digging. She also gets to be a presence on the offensive side attacking against her opponent, something she enjoys. But nothing comes as close to her thrill of someone going up for a huge swing and her sliding under the ball to make the dig look easy.

“I love digging fast balls against big hitters,” Morales said. “That’s one of the benefits of indoor.”

Morales will be reporting to Singapore on Aug. 10 for the Youth Olympic Games. Fortunately, this is not the first time that her participation in volleyball has taken her overseas.

“In April, my club team went to Spain,” Morales said. “We played the Spanish Junior National team. They were 18 and we were only 16. It was fun and different. We played with the international ball and that completely changes the game.”

The Youth Olympic Games will host 3,600 athletes from ages 14-18 that participate on one of 26 different sports. Over 20 National Olympic Committees will be sending teams to the Games. The goal of the event is to teach athletes the basics of Olympism, their ability to have a positive impact on those around them and learning about new cultures. Five educational themes are the driving force of the event; Olympism, skills development, well-being and healthy lifestyle, social responsibility and expression.

Along with these educational themes, the event is doing its part in helping the environment and hopefully engaging an estimated 26,000 spectators to “Go Green”. All of the venues hosting the Games have been declared as environmentally-friendly.

For more information on the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, click here.

2010 U.S. Youth Olympic Game Roster:

# - Player (Position, Height, Hometown, Club, Region)
3 - Samantha Cash (MB, 6-3, San Diego, Calif., Coast Volleyball Club, Southern California)
4 - Crystal Graff (OH, 6-3, Madison, Wis., Capital Volleyball Club, Badger)
5 - Micha Hancock (S, 5-11, Edmond, Okla., Oklahoma Peak, Oklahoma)
6 - Jade Hayes (OH/L, 6-0, Ozark, Mo., Springfield Juniors, Heart of America)
7 - Christina Higgins (OH, 6-2, Inglewood, Calif., Sport Shack, Southern California)
8 - Madison Kamp (S, 6-1, Orland, Ill., Ultimate VBC, Great Lakes)
9 - Madison Mahaffey (MB, 6-4, Vestavia Hills, Ala., Team Sting, Southern)
10 - Elizabeth McMahon (MB, 6-6, Liberty Township, Ohio, Team Z, Ohio Valley)
11 - Katie Mitchell (OH, 6-3, The Woodlands, Texas, Texas Tornados, Lone Star)
12 - Tiffany Morales (Libero, 5-5, Redondo Beach, Calif., Mizuno Long Beach, Southern California)
14 - Olivia Okoro (MB, 6-1, Carrollton, Texas, Dallas Premier, North Texas)
16 - Taylor Simpson (OH, 6-3, Colorado Springs, Colo., Colorado Juniors, Rocky Mountain)

Head Coach: Rodney Wilde (USA)
Assistant Coach: Charlene Johnson-Tagaloa (USA)

2010 Youth Olympic Games
Aug. 21-26 (Singapore)
Toa Payons Sports Hall (Volleyball)
(All Times Listed as Local Time)

Pool A
August 21: Singapore vs. Peru, 12:30 p.m. (Match 1)
August 22: Singapore vs. Japan, 10:00 a.m. (Match 3)
August 23: Peru vs. Japan, 12:30 p.m. (Match 5)

Pool B
August 21: Belgium vs. Egypt, 3:30 p.m. (Match 2)
August 22: USA vs. Belgium, 6:00 p.m. (Match 4)
August 23: USA vs. Egypt, 3:30 p.m. (Match 6)

Semifinal
August 24: Pool A1 Place vs. Pool B2, 12:30 p.m. (Match 7)
August 24: Pool B1 vs. Pool A2, 3:30 p.m. (Match 8)

5-6 Classification
August 25: Pool A3 vs. Pool B3, 12:30 p.m. (Match 9)

Bronze Medal
August 25: Loser of Match 7 vs. Loser of Match 8, 3:30 p.m. (Match 10)

Gold Medal
August 26: Winner of Match 7 vs. Winner of Match 8, 9:00 a.m. (Match 11)

Tags: 2010 U.S. Girls' Youth Olympic Team, Tiffany Morales, Youth Olympic Games